*Invitation* The Israel Antiquities Authority is pleased to offer to the public another virtual Dead Sea Scrolls conference on June 6, 7, 8, and 9, 2021.
Join us for The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Second Public Conference co-sponsored by the Friends of the IAA with NYU Global Network for Advanced Research in Jewish Studies and Skirball Department of Hebrew & Judaic Studies.
This conference follows our Dead Sea Scrolls in Recent Scholarship virtual conference in May 2020 that exceeded all expectations. More than 1500 individuals from all over the world including Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, Paraguay, and Tanzania participated in this first-ever international Dead Sea Scrolls conference.
More than three dozen scholars from around the world will gather online to share their research on the Dead Sea Scrolls. With the recent announcement of new Judean cave finds, including dozens of fragments of a biblical scroll from the Bar Kokhba period, this conference on the latest Dead Sea Scrolls research and findings is not to be missed. Recordings of last year's conference are available here. Registration is again free and will be required
Hear from international scholars and experts from the Israel Antiquities Authority, and from Israel, the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Malta, Switzerland, Denmark, and France.
Session topics include: Major Issues in Dead Sea Scrolls Research; the Judean Desert Caves Archaeological Project; Archaeology of Qumran; Archaeology and Sectarianism; Manuscript and Text; Aramaic and Parabiblical Texts; Legal and Sectarian Texts; Scripture, Scrolls and Second Temple Judaism; and War and Violence in the Scrolls
This virtual conference is presented free to the public by the Israel Antiquities Authority, Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority and NYU, Global Network for Advanced Research in Jewish Studies & the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies.
For any questions about the schedule or registration process, please send an email here
THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS: A SECOND PUBLIC CONFERENCE Sponsored by: New York University
Global Network for Advanced Research in Jewish Studies
Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies
The Israel Antiquities Authority
Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority
Sunday June 6, 2021
11:00 - 11:30 AM EDT [6:00 - 6:30 PM IDT]: Opening Session
Presiding Chair and Opening Remarks
Alex Jassen, Chair, Skirball Department of Hebrew & Judaic Studies, New York University Greetings
Andrew D. Hamilton, President New York University
Gideon Avni, Head Scientist, Israel Antiquities Authority
Emily Master, Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority
Joe Uziel, Head of the Dead Sea Scrolls Unit, Israel Antiquities Authority
11:30 AM – 1:00 PM EDT [6:30 - 8:00 PM IDT]: Report on the Judean Desert Caves Archaeological Project
Chair: Ilit Cohen-Ofri, Israel Antiquities Authority
The Judean Desert Caves Archaeological Project: Goals, Methodology and Achievements Eitan Klein, Israel Antiquities Authority
Excavations in Murabba`at Cave 4: Preliminary Insights
Haim Cohen, Israel Antiquities Authority
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“And I will bring them to dwell in Jerusalem”: New Fragments of the Greek Minor Prophets Scroll (8HevXII gr)
Oren Ableman and Beatriz Riestra, Israel Antiquities Authority
1:00 - 1:30 PM EDT [8:00 - 8:30 PM IDT]: Break
1:30 - 3:30 PM EDT [8:30 - 10:30 PM IDT]: Major Issues in Dead Sea Scrolls Research Chair: Angela Kim Harkins, Boston College
Scribal Text Groups among the Bible Manuscripts Found in the Judean Desert Emanuel Tov, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Evidence for Scribal Apprenticeship and Education at Qumran
Sidnie White Crawford, University of Nebraska
What Do We Know about the Teacher of Righteousness?
John J. Collins, Yale University
Troops of Light: Militant Prayer and Ritual Cursing in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Daniel Falk, Penn State University
Monday, June 7, 2021
9:00 - 10:30 AM EDT [4:00 - 5:30 PM IDT]: Archaeology of Qumran
Chair: Molly Zahn, University of Kansas
Qumran in the Late Hellenistic Period: An Archaeological Reassessment.
Dennis Mizzi, University of Malta
To Sit or to Squat? The Qumran Toilet Revisited
Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina
Searching for Qumran Cave 6Q
Marcello Fidanzio, Faculty of Theology, Lugano
2 10:30 - 11:00 AM EDT [5:30 - 6:00 PM IDT]: Break
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM EDT [6:00 - 7:30 PM IDT]: Archaeology and Sectarianism Chair: Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina
The Archaeology of Sectarianism: Social Analysis of Khirbet Qumran
Eyal Regev, Bar-Ilan University
The Gate of the Essenes in Jerusalem
Timothy H. Lim, University of Edinburgh
A Comprehensive Analysis of the Tefillin (Phylacteries) Assemblage from the Judean Desert: A Work-in-Progress
Yonatan Adler, Ariel University
12:30 - 1:00 PM EDT [7:30 - 8:00 PM IDT]: Break
1:00 - 3:00 PM EDT [8:00 - 10:00 PM IDT]: Launching the Qumranica (SQE) Virtual Scholarly Environment
Chair: Esther Chazon
Scripta Qumranica Electronica: The Vision, Concept, and Challenges of a New Online Platform for the Dead Sea Scrolls
Reinhard Kratz, University of Göttingen and Pnina Shor, Israel Antiquities Authority
A Short Tour of the Qumranica Platform
Bronson Brown deVost, University of Göttingen
Digital and Material Reconstruction of Highly Fragmentary Scrolls
Jonathan Ben-Dov, Tel Aviv University and Eshbal Ratzon, Ariel University
Towards a New Edition of 4QInstruction: The Case of the Prologue
Asaf Gayer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
3 Tuesday, June 8, 2021
9:00 - 11:00 AM EDT [4:00 - 6:00 PM IDT]: Manuscript and Text
Chair: Eileen Schuller, McMaster University
Do 11Q19 and 11Q20 Represent Different Recensions of the Temple Scroll? Methodological Considerations
Andrew Gross, Catholic University of America
4QpaleoExodm (4Q22) and the ‘Samaritan’ Tenth Commandment.
Hila Dayfani, University of Oxford, Oriel College
Pesher Habakkuk: From Behind the Scenes of a Forthcoming New Commentary Noam Mizrachi, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Dead Sea Scrolls and Authorship
George Brooke, University of Manchester
11:00 - 11:30 AM EDT [6:00 - 6:30 PM IDT]: Break
11:30 AM - 2:00 PM EDT [6:30 - 9:00 PM IDT]: Aramaic and Parabiblical Texts Chair: Joseph Angel. Yeshiva University
A God’s-Eye View: The Perception of Sacrifice in Aramaic Levi
Liane Feldman, New York University
Is There 'Poetry' in the 'Prose' of the Genesis Apocryphon?
Moshe J. Bernstein, Yeshiva University
Books and Writings in the Aramaic Texts from Qumran
Devorah Dimant, University of Haifa
What Did Levi Do?
James C. VanderKam, University of Notre Dame
'Seal the Words of the Scroll until the Time of the End' (Daniel 12:4): Hidden Manuscripts and the Search for a New Biblical Past
Eva Mroczek, University of California, Davis
4 Wednesday, June 9, 2021
9:00 - 11:00 AM EDT [4:00 - 6:00 PM IDT]: Legal and Sectarian Texts
Chair: Sidnie White Crawford, University of Nebraska
'Bringing the Messiah(s) Through Law': Reflections upon Completing a New Commentary to the Damascus Document
Steven Fraade, Yale University
Inter-sectarian Polemic in Miqsat Ma`asei Ha-Torah (4QMMT)
Vered Noam, Tel Aviv University
On Timing and Law: A Multimodal Analysis of the Maskil in 4Q259
James M. Tucker, University of Toronto
The Temple Scroll and Mishnah Middot: A Literary Comparison
Lawrence H. Schiffman, New York University
11:00 - 11:30 AM EDT [6:00 - 6:30 PM IDT]: Break
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM EDT [6:30 - 8:00 PM IDT]: Scripture, Scrolls and Second Temple Judaism Chair: Alison Schofield, University of Denver
Why Did Moses Stay for Forty Days and Forty Nights on Mt. Sinai?
Ariel Feldman, Brite Divinity School
Lived Wisdom in Early Judaism
Elisa Uusimäki, Aarhus University
Are the Dead Sea Scrolls Authentic? Insights from Early Qumran Scholarship
Michael Langlois, University of Strasbourg
1:00 - 1:30 PM EDT [8:00 - 8:30 IDT]: Break
5 1:30 - 2:30 PM EDT [8:30 - 9:30 PM IDT]: War and Violence in the Scrolls
Chair: Liane Feldman, New York University
“Deep into that darkness peering “: New Light on the War Scroll (1QM)
Guy Stiebel, Tel Aviv University
The Origins of Violence in the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Sociological Perspective
Alex Jassen, New York University
2:30 - 3:00 PM EDT (9:30 - 10:00 PM IDT]: Closing Remarks and Thanks
Emily Master, Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority
Joe Uziel, Israel Antiquities Authority
Lawrence H. Schiffman, New York University
